-Why we are Doing it
-Mimiko Campaign Flags off in Owo
SEVERAL multi-party endorsements have started building up for Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, the most spectacular of which has so far come from notable politicians and Peoples Democratic Party stalwart, Senator Bode Olajumoke; former ambassador to Greece and later high commissioner Australia, Fiji Island and Papua New Guinea, Professor Olu Agbi.
Sharpedgenews.com is now confirming that former minister of defense, Prince Tokunbo Kayode, has also joined the large grassroots mobilization efforts for Governor Mimiko. Billionaire businessman Jimoh Ibrahim has also instructed key associates to work for Dr. Mimiko whose campaign flag-off takes place in the historic city of Owo, Ondo State on Thursday.
Reproduced here is a statement personally handed to sharpedgenews.com on the campaign arguments made by a key member of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Akin Olowookere, on the relationship with Mimiko.
EXCERPTS:
First and foremost, we will like to clarify the situation of the people’s Democratic Party in Ondo State as well as place certain germane misconceptions and misperceptions that have continued to remain unexplained in the past couple of years about the health of the party. There is no doubt that this Press Conference becomes inevitable because; certain elements within our great party have found the continued disunity in the party as a veritable source of bread and butter and would therefore stop at perpetuate unnecessary crises within the Party for filthy lucre. We therefore believe this is the right time to put a stop to the ongoing charade and macabre dance to which so-called leaders have consistently subjected the party.
Our Party, the Peoples Democratic Party, P.D.P., won a landslide victory in 2003 clearing the State House of Assembly seats and the Governorship position to become the leading Party in Ondo State thus breaking the extant jinx that forebode the State from the national political arena. Our Party continued this winning streak in 2007 by clearing the entire House of Representatives and the three Senate seats before a Court of Appeal judgment awarded the Governorship seat to the Labour Party in February, 2009. Nevertheless, our Party retained the three (3) Senatorial Seats and the eight (8) House of Representatives Seats in the State (having lost one House of Representatives seat to the cold hands of death in 2007).
The woes of the P.D.P. in Ondo State broke into the open with the loss of the Governorship position at the Appeal Court in Benin City on February 22, 2009; when the erstwhile poor and wobble divide and rule leadership style of Dr.Olusegun Agagu became exposed and obsolete. The first set of people to show their dissatisfaction about the way the party was being run was the P.D.P. ‘Aborigines’ (that is, those who joined the party in 1998 who indeed were the henchmen of Dr. Agagu while in office. The insurgence of this group uncovered the long standing crack in the party and from that time on, it became Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things fall apart’ as the centre could no longer hold. The major surprise was that this group also decried the ‘proprietorship tendency’ of the leader of the party by which they meant the system of one person holding the party in his pocket. As a matter of fact, Dr. Agagu usually make bold to say that he had contributed more than anybody to the party and as such, he needed not consult with any leader of the party in major decision-making process especially when it comes to the distribution of party patronage.
Consequently, this parochial system of administration led to the over-empowerment of his Chief-of-Staff, Mr. Femi Agagu, (his extremely arrogant brother) who was rightly described by some members of the party as the viceroy of the P.D.P. government; this further alienated a large chunk of members from the party mainstream. In that circumstance, while a large number of party members defeated to other parties, some members remained within, apparently to fight within the system to reform it.
The loss of the Governorship seat itself is instructive in that:
a) If exposed the failure of the Governor to allow the party machinery to function to its best ability; party decisions and were being thwarted by the Executive arm of Government headed by a P. D. P. Governor.
b) Six years in power did not improve or enhance the financial and structural capacity of the party; the party’s vehicles were dilapidated, office rent in arrears and the party could not boast of an office building of its own.
c) Remunerations and allowances of party officials were poor in arrears.
d) Empowerment of party members was poor, shoddy, inadequate and slow.
Ever since that loss of the Governorship seat, the party began to slide into a regime of electoral losses which included the following elections:
- i. Bye Election into the House or Assembly in Akure North State Constituency in 2009;
- ii. Bye Election into the Federal House of Representatives in Akoko Southwest/Southeast Federal Constituency in 2010;
- iii. Bye Election into the House of Assembly in Ilaje State Constituency in 2010
- iv. 2011 National election into the State and Federal Legislature that eventually culminated in the total loss of all the three (3) Senatorial and eight (8) House of Representatives Seats in the 2011 General Election.
The burden of these electoral losses became an albatross mostly on the shoulders of the Party’s candidates who had to solely provide resources to fight the State and Federal legislative elections. In the end, these class of legislators lost Billions of Naira to the 2011 elections. The trauma of this cacophony of poor performances led to series of in-house accusations, instability and misgivings within the Party, which climaxes to the suspension of the former Minister of Defense, Prince Tokunbo Kayode and the former Governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu. Majority of members demanded the resignation of the Dr. Dairo-led lack-lustre Executive Committee that was believed to be too sub servant to certain personalities to be effectives while other aggrieved members, after efforts to restore sanity failed instituted court action and obtained a court Injunction, stopping the Executive Committee from further parading themselves while the Party Accounts was frozen.
In the course of time, a Vigorous reconciliation process was initiated. In spite of stiff resistance, however, wise counsel prevailed and the Dr. Dairo-led lack-lustre EXCO voluntarily resigned their positions paving way for the withdrawal of the court action while a Transition Committee was introduced to run the affairs of the Party pending the conduct of a new Congress with the proviso that the Transition Committee members will not contest election into the Congress or organize or by participating in the Congress. Other achievements of the reconciliation effort was the establishment of a collegiate leadership system to dilute the proprietorship power contraption held by Dr. Olusegun system to dilute the proprietorship power contraption held by Dr. Olusegun Agagu, whose handling of the party had degenerated to a dictatorship. The collegiate leadership system undertook all policy directions of the Party pending the State Congress as well as address issues regarding Federal Appointments allotted to the State. That the meetings of the Leadership Caucus be rotated amongst its members while the hosts become the temporary Chairman till the next meeting. But again, some minions of Dr. Segun Agagu through their usual crafty shenanigan and in collaboration with his other lackeys hijacked the Transition Committee midway and made the Committee to transit themselves to permanent EXCO, in a stage-managed Local Government and State Congress that was full of irregularities, malpractices and undemocratic procedures. How this was achieved is a topic for another day. The Congress was also carried out in full deliberate disobedience of a subsisting Court Injunction.
Furthermore, the so-called State EXCO that emanated from the illegal Congress proceeded to conduct primaries for governorship aspirants within the party through a heavily flawed and crooked selection process. Five Delegates for the primaries were handpicked from each Local Government making only ninety (90) members from handpicked from to participate in the exercise. Agagu, on the day of the so-called primary, only eighteen (18) members out of the ninety (90) were handpicked and taken into an inner room to decide privately who will be the flag bearer of the party. It is these eighteen (18) members that later came out to announce their verdict to the seventy-two (72) left-over to produce the current so-called candidate. To further formalize their illegality and undemocratic procedure, the illegal State EXCO members assembled three handpicked members again from each ward in the eighteen (18) Local Government Areas of the State to ratify the illegal they had earlier committed. The perpetration and perpetuation of undemocratic actions continued unabated when the illegal Alabi-led EXCO decided to set up caretaker committees in some Local Governments in the State where they picked their cronies and friends to run the affairs of the party.
In as much as democratic cannot be built on undemocratic foundations to say the least, Olusola Oke’s nomination is heavily flawed but more will be heard of this at a later date. The distribution of party appointments was reaffirming the proprietorship system once again thereby, the Alabi-led executive begin to promote petty intrigues, internecine quarrels, campaign of calumny, blackmail against some party leaders which became the order of the day. A good example of this petty intrigues occurred at a meeting held in Akure City Hall when the party was trying to paper the cracks within the party where the former Minister of Defense was heavily booed and humiliated at the meeting. Similarly on the same occasion, the former Secretary to the State Government was nearly assaulted by one of the minions of Dr. Agagu. Of greatest concern however, is the display of unparalleled profligacy exhibited by Alabi-led Executive Committee by spending over ten million naira (10,000,000) of party funds in one month.
It is pertinent at this junction to draw the attention of our party members and the general public to salient facts that now constitute the bane of our party. We have noted that only one Senatorial district has dominated the government seat since the formation of the P.D.P in Ondo State. In 1998, Dr. Olusegun Agagu from the South Senatorial District contested for the governorship of the State as well as in 2003. In 2007, the same Dr. Olusegun Agagu contested and now in 2012, Chief Olusola Oke who is also from the Southern Senatorial District is about to contest for the governorship of this State again. From the foregoing, one can see that this is not only unprecedented in the annals of Ondo State history but also unfair by any yardstick or criterion. It cannot be said that the P.D.P in the State cannot find a qualified candidate from Northern and Central Senatorial Districts.
In the meantime, it can be imagined how a party with one Member of the House of Representatives, only one member in the State House of Assembly and no single Senator or Local Government Chairman and no member of any Board of Parastatals in this State can genuinely fight election against an incumbent Governor and an Administration that have 99 percent of National Assembly, State Assembly and have nominated Federal appointments such as special Adviser to the President, N.D.D.C. commissioner and 100 percent of Chairmen of Boards of parastatals in the State. It is relevant to point out that when the incumbent governor came to power, the P.D.P. was having a majority in the House of Assembly. At that time there were many opportunities to set the direction and tone of Government which were not utilized; rather, most of our members embarked on a jolly ride to U.S.A. and sold their positions to the Labour Party for the love of filthy lucre. At that time, the P.D.P. could not convert a single Labour Party member to join the P.D.P.; we therefore, wonder how this will now be achieved when the P.D.P. no longer enjoy such clout as it had in the good old days. Both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker were impeached before their own very eyes and in spite of their so-called majority in the House of Assembly. It is strange that these weaklings now claim to be the generalissimo of P.D.P.
In the light of the above salient facts, this Press Conference was organized to inform the member s of our party that are daily goaded into non-existing Eldorado and the general public and electorate who are already watching the charade that some handpicked ‘Directors under a Managing Director’ are perpetrating within the party. It is strange that leaders of political parties are always consciously or unconsciously unable to assess the state of their parties at any given time, particularly their chances in electoral duel. That is why the accusation of rigging is always the caller-tune of any political party that loses elections. It is our heartfelt desire to let the public know the truth and stop the propaganda being spread that those who are dissatisfied with the way the party is being run are sponsored by the opposition parties. THIS IS FAR FROM THE TRUTH. For the sake of clarity, it must be pointed out that our Party Leaders here present believe strongly in the P.D.P and would not trade the greatness of our party for anything in this world. We have no other party and will not decamp to any other party. However, we also believe that P.D.P. victory may not be in 2013 and therefore, the P.D.P. should be prepared and position itself properly for future elections.
We in this hall today are loyal members of P.D.P. but our perception of the party is based on cogent, practical and verifiable indicators that cannot be assailed through blind criticisms and vendetta. We have no personal grudge against any particular person in the party-not even Dr. Olusegun Agagu or his Tayo Alabi; but our major concern is for the teeming supporters of our party who are being misled by the current state of the party whose future will be mortgaged whenever the reality dawns on them. It is easy to churn out propaganda against those who think differently; but nowhere in history has falsehood ever triumphed over the truth. It is easier for self-centered, greedy and myopic leaders to think about their own welfare rather than the welfare of the lower cadres of party supporters in order to secure Federal appointments and contracts. Presently, those in the helm of affairs in the P.D.P. in Ondo State are equally unconcerned with the plight of our teeming supporters as long as they gain access to party funds, drive new cars donated by persons seeking federal contracts.
Nevertheless, we reaffirm our total loyalty to the National Leadership of our great party and law abiding citizens and members of this party, we demand the return of the party to full democratic and due process where fairness, equity, non-violence and respect for the rights of all members are ensured. We are therefore, prepared to settle these issues within the party without violence and to work assiduously for the upliftment of the party. The mere fact that we see the forthcoming election differently does not mean that others who do not see it the same way are better party members or that we better party members. We categorically state that it is not absolutely true that a member of a political party must support the candidate of his party. There are plethoras of examples to support this assertion. Not quit long ago, the A.C.N. fielded Nuhu Ribadu of E.F.C.C. fame as its Presidential candidate; yet all the A.C.N. states with the exception of Osun State voted for President Goodluck Jonathan, a P.D.P. candidate. Recently in Edo State gubernatorial election, eminent P.D.P. leaders worked assiduously for Oshiomhole’s victory. Few years ago, the A.P.P. voted for Chief Olu Falae, an A.D. Presidential candidate.
In today’s politics, the dictating factor is to vote for a good, credible candidate, who is full of integrity and commitment to the welfare of the masses. Politics is dynamic not a static game. The principal of voting for leadership has changed:
Good governance or the pursuit of it is the yardstick. The rigidity that ‘I must vote for the candidate of my party, even if he has no mettle or experience to govern well or who decided to run the race without adequate preparation for the exalted office’ can definitely not sail anymore. Any candidate in this mould cannot be a good governor. Political parties must see to this future; that is, a candidate must be seen to have properly prepared himself for the contest not a ‘one-chance’ candidate or ‘I may lucky’ candidate.
Our stand is that we will not fold our arms and allow the Action Congress of Nigeria, snatch the governorship of Ondo State and thereafter subject the resource and development of this State to the whims and caprices of external forces.
We will not toy with the future or our great party by deliberately walking the Party into loosing the coming election that would lead to the total drain of our membership before seeking solutions.
We will not compromise the integrity of our party by continuing to build on an illegal illegitimate and weak structure.
We will not tolerate a proprietorship form of leadership that does not put the views and expectations of other party members into consideration or that will continue to arrogate to itself alone the wisdom of running the party.
While we are open to dialogue on these issues, we insist on meaningful dialogue under the supervision of our National leadership. S stitch in time saves nine!